In the case of cash gaming machines, it is customary to integrate a bill acceptor into the gaming machine, said bill acceptor checking that the bank notes are genuine for example, reading the value of the bank notes, accepting the bank notes and depositing them in a storage unit, or alternatively dispensing bank notes as winnings, or processing them in another way. In order to be able to better insert the bank notes into such a bill acceptor, as a rule feeders are attached in front of the input slot of the bill acceptors and make it easier to thread the bank notes in and help to insert them. In particular, such feeders make it easier to precisely position the bank notes to be inserted. For this purpose, a supporting surface is provided for supporting the bank note and is usually bordered on both sides by positioning flanks in order to orient the bank notes transversely to the direction of insertion, centrally with respect to the insertion slot or at a predetermined insertion edge.
Different feeders or different bill acceptors need to be used, depending on what type of bank notes, i.e. for example dollars or euros, rubles or yen, the bill acceptor is designed for, in order to place the respective bank notes precisely in the desired position relative to the entry slot of the bill acceptor and to be able to process them. This is unproblematic per se as long as the feeder is attached to the respective bill acceptor, with the result that each bill acceptor has its own feeder.
However, in the case of gaming machines it is advantageous to arrange and secure the bill acceptor inside the housing of the gaming machine, whilst the feeder for inserting the bank notes is advantageously provided on a housing wall or is incorporated into the housing wall, in order to protect the bill acceptor situated behind the housing wall from being manipulated. Said feeder can hereby advantageously be integrated into the machine door or a door-like housing part, so that the feeder is hinged away from the bill acceptor when the machine door hinges open and comes to lie in front of the bill acceptor so that it fits precisely when the door is closed.
However, because such gaming machines can contain different bill acceptors for different countries, integrating the feeder into a machine housing part means that it is not possible to use a single machine housing and different versions need to be manufactured and made available depending on the feeder required. However, the approach of designing separate feeders for different bill acceptors and integrating them into the corresponding gaming machine housing entails considerable expenditure on construction and manufacturing and has corresponding costs associated with it.
US 2004/0222296 discloses an ATM with a front panel that is provided with a feeder through which an acceptor arranged behind the front panel can be accessed. The internal width of the feeder can be adjusted by transversely adjustable side flank parts that are guided on the rear of the front panel in elongated guides.
Furthermore, EP 14 16 446 discloses a gaming machine that has a feeder for feeding in bank notes provided on its front panel, said feeder having a supporting surface, in the form of a grid, for supporting the bank notes to be inserted flat.
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide an improved device of the type mentioned at the beginning that obviates the disadvantages of the prior art and advantageously develops the latter. In particular, the invention is to provide a universal feeder that can be used for a large number of different bill acceptors, wherein the positioning flanks of the feeder can be finely adjusted transversely to the direction of insertion of the bank notes and can be easily secured in the desired position.